Realization Point..

It was yet another day in my busy life (ya, I am busy nowadays. .trust me). I sat with my laptop with coffee in hand. For every sip of coffee, I was thinking of the various deadlines of projects, assignments, dates of quizzes etc. Suddenly, the network was down and I was not able to connect, even to google.com. I was turned off completely and it seemed like the whole world has come to a halt.

No sooner the connection restored, my mom reached me in skype from India. She was really sad and inquired about me and my health more than usual. Wondering why, I stopped her and asked why she was worried about me, when she told me that it was more than a week since I spoke to her. "What? A week? Mom, stop kidding.. I spoke to you a couple of days back and ..", just when i realized 'ya, she is true. It was 8 days back when I last spoke to her'.

I started to realize (tardily as usual) on how I'm into the internet world more than real one - mails, chats, twitter, blogging, facebook, orkut, news etc. And truly, Google is my best friend now, to the extent that I can't imagine a life for a day without it. Ridiculously, I can live without speaking to my mom for more than a week but not without google for a day. What a major transformation !

I am not able to stay from internet for more than a hour. My heart pounds for getting myself connected online - to refresh inactive mailbox every five minutes & keep waiting for non-coming incoming mails, to check the online list of buddies in instant messenger when no one even cares a damn to ping you and so on...

It is an unfortunate fact that we are trying to spend more time finding friends online than meeting the real ones next door. We are ready to spend hours scrapping, tweeting, blogging ourselves to really live this second life rather than seconding to live our real life.. So sad !

First Impressions !

It has been just a few days since i made it to the United States - with all excitement and expectation. As a stranger in this strange land, I have observed a few things which I would like to share with you.

1. People are friendly and ready to accept other communities

2. Friday nights and parties go hand in hand.. all souls follow the unwritten rule - get drunk and enjoy

3. Vehicles stop for pedestrians unlike in India

4. If you see someone in their eyes, they will surely smile and wish you at least a 'hi' / 'how u doing' etc. And if you do not return their greetings, you are considered too 'rude' !

5. Honking is considered insulting and if you blow your horn, you can mostly see the other party raising their middle finger against you

6. No one is in a hurry, unless they really are !

7. The buses are so punctual that you can even set the time in your watch

8. There is no biasing or discrimination based on someone's job - a server or a company CEO are treated in the same way

9. You take away a life of an american or his freedom.. both mean the same to him

10. Roads and rules reign. Starting from seat-belt to speed limit to parking lot time, once has to follow intricate rules. If not, you are busted

11. Craziest football freaks are out everywhere

12. You name a cool car, you find it somewhere near you. Cars are cheap and the main mode of transport. Surprisingly, trains are least preferred except in some places

13. Most of them work out everyday to maintain their physique

14. Dogs do not bark, crows do not caw and no animals on street

15. Last but not the least.. American chicks are extremely good looking and it is really difficult to pick the most beautiful woman in a group. And not surprisingly, they care a damn if you ogle at them or not !